Dwarf Gourami Inbreeding

[Nippyfish]

I've been reading about problems associated with too much inbreeding like health problems and loss of certain traits and was wondering if it is advised to purchase adults from different sources to avoid further inbreeding? I am curious what others do.

[I'll be breeding Dwarf Gouramis in the future for personal knowledge not financial gain so we're not talking about a lot of breeding. Maybe just a couple spawns depending on how the first goes]

 

[Toirtis]

It is always a good idea to diversify bloodlines as much as possible...with any animal. That being said, there is probably a reasonable degree of likelihood that any two gouramis in your LFS are only loosely related, if at all.

 

[Nippyfish]

there is probably a reasonable degree of likelihood that any two gouramis in your LFS are only loosely related, if at all.

I was afraid that any two I bought would probably be brother/sister if I got them from the same store. I don't know much about the business side of things. [i.e. how stores purchase the fish and if they likely all come from one spawn]

 

[Toirtis]

Usually, stores buy from wholesalers, who in turnm have bought from transhippers or directly from fish farms....the fish farms scoop out thousands of fish at a time, netting fish from dozens of spawns, so the fish that end up at your local shop are probably a mixture of 3-10 different spawns.

 

[fishmonger]

your lfs sells female dwarfs? Only place I found them was online.

 

[Toirtis]

your lfs sells female dwarfs? Only place I found them was online.

They are quite available to LFSes, but most shops choose not to carry them, as they are poor selllers, compared to the males. One of my LFSes has been stocking them regularly recently, and for just $3 CDN each (about $2.25US).

 

[Nippyfish]

I was at PetCo two days ago and they had 2 male and 3 females Dwarfs.

The Ma & Pa shop I usually go to offered to order them for me. Nice to know there are options, it's just plain too cold to ship live animals here this time of year.